Just Jackie by Edward Klein (trending books to read TXT) 📕

like that? You don’t see Gloria and Aileen in that kind of getup. What is your problem?’

“Her problem was doing the pointing. We could not believe what we were hearing. We cringed—but Jackie didn’t.

“Just for a second, a look of hurt and sadness crossed her face, but then she smiled her brightest smile and said, ‘Yes, don’t they look great!’ And then without missing a beat, ‘Loel, after lunch will you take John for a ride in your helicopter? He has been looking forward to it all day.’

“Her husband had humiliated her in front of her friends, and while another woman might have snapped back in anger, she handled this awkward moment with grace and charm, turning aside an ugly incident. …

“As was his way, [Ari] laughed boisterously and joked at lunch, drinking glass after glass of red wine. Now I watched as he stumbled out to the beach, curling on the sand in a fetal ball, falling into a deep, uneasy sleep. … He was no longer in love with [Jackie]—if he ever was—and nothing she could do was right.”

ABANDONED

Late in the evening on Christmas Day in 1973, Onassis phoned Stelio Papadimitriou, his personal attorney and number-two man in Athens.

“Season’s greetings,” he said. “What’re you up to?”

“I’m with my family celebrating the holiday,” Papadimitriou said. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” Onassis said. “Jackie’s in New York with her children. I’m all alone.”

Papadimitriou detected a note of self-pity in Onassis’s voice, and he did not know how to respond.

“I’m going to the Olympic Airways office,” Onassis said. “I’ve asked Paul Ioannides [general manager and chief pilot of Olympic Airways] to join me. Will you come?”

“Of course,” Papadimitriou said. “I’ll be right there.”

When the short, dapper attorney arrived at the office, it was almost midnight. Nonetheless, the place was bustling with activity. The loyal members of Onassis’s inner circle had left their homes and families to rally round the boss.

“Jackie is always away,” Onassis complained to Papadimitriou. “I feel as though I don’t have a wife. I’m alone. My son is dead. I need someone to rely on.”

“It was natural for a sick man to feel that way,” Papadimitriou said in recalling this episode. “He was angry that Jackie was away so much. He felt that she was not around as much as before. Whether that was true or not—and, in my view, it was not—he did not know what to do with himself. His mother had died when he was young, and he was feeling abandoned all over again. He was used to abandoning other people. Now, for the first time, he was the one abandoned.”

“I STILL LOVE HER”

Right after Christmas, Onassis visited Papadimitriou at the Olympic Airways office and informed him that he and Jackie planned to fly to Acapulco for a few days in the sun. Before they left, however, there were two pressing matters that he wanted Papadimitriou to take care of.

“Of course,” said the attorney, removing a notepad from his desk drawer to jot down his orders.

Onassis seemed to sag, rather than sit, in his chair. As Papadimitriou knew, Onassis had just been shown the latest figures from the Petroleum Institute. Three months into the Arab oil embargo, world oil imports were still in a free-fall. Each day, more and more of his tankers were becoming idle. His cash flow was drying up.

Onassis leaned forward and tossed a set of papers on Papadimitriou’s desk.

“Here,” he said, “I’ve written out my will.”

Under Greek law, a will, to be valid, had to be in a person’s own handwriting. Papadimitriou flipped through the pages, and was satisfied that the document had been composed by Onassis in his precise penmanship. A quick glance also convinced him that he did not have to read what Onassis had written. Papadimitriou had done numerous drafts of the will for Onassis over the past year, and this was a handwritten copy of the most recent version.

“Having already taken care of my wife Jacqueline Bouvier,” Onassis wrote, “and having obtained a written agreement notarized by a Notary Public in U.S.A., by which she gives up her hereditary rights on my inheritance, I limit [the] share for her and her two children.”

Onassis bequeathed a lifetime income of $200,000 a year to Jackie, and $25,000 a year to Caroline and John each until they reached the age of twenty-one. In addition, Jackie was to be given a 25 percent share in both the Christina and Skorpios. It was the minimum Onassis could give her. If Jackie chose to dispute the will, she would immediately forfeit her annuity, and Onassis’s executors and the rest of his heirs were instructed to fight her “through all possible legal means.”

“I want you to hold this will for me,” Onassis said. “And when I die, consult with my daughter and my advisers, and decide whether to make the will public or not.”

“If you give me this will now,” Papadimitriou said, “I have a legal duty as an attorney to post it with the court.”

“I want you to withhold publication, but perform it,” Onassis said firmly.

“I can’t avoid publication,” said Papadimitriou, who refused to play the role of a yes-man. “I must deposit it in the court.”

“Then I’ll give it to someone else,” Onassis said.

“Fine,” Papadimitriou said, handing him back the document.

Onassis let out a weary sigh, then continued. “Okay, I have something else I want to talk about,” he said. “I hope we can make more progress on this matter.”

“I hope so, too,” Papadimitriou said.

“No matter what harsh words I may have used in the past about Jackie, you and I know that she is at heart a kind and good woman,” Onassis said.

“That is true,” Papadimitriou said. “She is a real lady.”

“I adore her,” Onassis said. “To tell the truth, I still love her. But I want to divorce her. Do you understand what I am saying?”

“No, I’m afraid I don’t follow you,” Papadimitriou said.

Onassis rolled his eyes. “It is simple,” he